D&D 5E D&D Beyond Self-Censorship: Pride Month Digital Dice Blocked In Some Countries
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TheSword
Legend
There is a lot of misplaced anger in this thread. Not to mention cynicism.
I totally appreciate Hasbro making the gesture and marking pride month with online dice… without wanting to get drawn into the legal mud. The suggestion that D&D ‘is small enough to fly under the radar’ probably isn’t a very convincing argument for Hasbro who I’m sure don’t see themselves as such. I’ll chose to take the WotC teams track record on LGBT issues at face value and give them credit where it’s due. Not assume it’s just to sell product.
The online and media censorship in Turkey clearly gives them cause for concern. Your beef is with the censors and the oppressive administration not with the companies trying to do their best in dozens of different countries many of which have different regulatory regimes.
I totally appreciate Hasbro making the gesture and marking pride month with online dice… without wanting to get drawn into the legal mud. The suggestion that D&D ‘is small enough to fly under the radar’ probably isn’t a very convincing argument for Hasbro who I’m sure don’t see themselves as such. I’ll chose to take the WotC teams track record on LGBT issues at face value and give them credit where it’s due. Not assume it’s just to sell product.
The online and media censorship in Turkey clearly gives them cause for concern. Your beef is with the censors and the oppressive administration not with the companies trying to do their best in dozens of different countries many of which have different regulatory regimes.
Not here, thanks.
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
You can say I have read too many conspirancy theories but this sounds as "orders from the top", and 2022 is a very year for the entertaiment industry, and not only about mergers and acquisitions.
WotC has tried seriously to be gay-friendly, and this detail seems like a warning sign of something is changing, as if there were hard pressures to be more "ideologically neutral", and not only with certain zones.
D&D is not enough small to fly under radar any more, and more after the action-live movie.
WotC has tried seriously to be gay-friendly, and this detail seems like a warning sign of something is changing, as if there were hard pressures to be more "ideologically neutral", and not only with certain zones.
D&D is not enough small to fly under radar any more, and more after the action-live movie.
Ondath
Hero
Or, and hear me out here, we can be critical of oppressive administrations as well as companies that claim to support progressive values in the West and then bend over backwards in complying with (and again, I cannot stress this enough) non-existent regulation against LGBT people. What exists in Turkey is a climate hostile against LGBT people, not laws, and adhering to that climate when doing so does not endanger your business (as seen by the likes of Netflix and Riot) seems hypocritical to those values.
In the West, yes. In Turkey, as I keep repeating, D&D is not a recognised brand name outside niche hobby communities. I'd know, I have a hard time keeping a Sci-fi and fantasy club active with 30+ members in a university with 12.000+ students.
TheSword
Legend
I mean I understand your disappointment. I just think your anger is misplaced.
It’s not really for you to tell WOC what their level of risk is. WOC doesn’t just claim to support those values. It is supporting those values. You just happen to live in a different country to the one that company was founded in.
There clearly is censorship on media and online content. You should recognize that the risk of enforcement can be just as powerful as actual enforcement. An age limit on WOC content doesn’t do anyone favors, not to mention the difficulty of implanting age control measures if required to for something relatively minor.
As I said. It sucks. But you’re beating the wrong piñata.
Ondath
Hero
Except, it is for me because I live in the country where they made this risk assesment. I know examples of other companies that took a similar "risk" and did not face any major consequences. While the 18+ warning for rainbow products e-commerce clause seems scary, D&D Beyond doesn't even have a proper marketplace for Turkey, we just use the same interface as the American one, and many other countries would just continue servicing the same thing they do worldwide in this situation. Here's Riot's "colour festival" announcement in Turkish where they are able to provide pride-themed emotes and cosmetic choices for free with no 18+ requirement for LoL. WotC decided to actively make the situation worse when they didn't need to.
Expressing resentment towards companies for what we think to be actions taken in bad regard is a pretty common practice. There are even papers in social ontology that use such cases to prove that collectives can be held responsible (Deborah Tollefsen has a whole book on it called Groups as Agents). To dismiss this by saying that my anger is displaced and that I should actually deal with the Other Actor (with whom I'm already dealing to the best of my political ability) feels condescending, because it actually shows that you'd rather explain away my anger instead of listening to the salient reasons I'm giving for my resentment.
MGibster
Legend
That sounds an awful lot like saying we shouldn't criticize WotC. When a corporation is all gay friendly at home but tones it down for foreign audiences, well, it's fair to call them out on that. It's great that WotC has a track record for being inclusive, but that doesn't make them above any criticism.
For what it's worth, I think WotC would face just as much flack domestically, if not more, if people heard they changed it to a "colour festival" rather than self-censoring.
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